With the election (restoration) of Carol Shea-Porter and Ann McLane Kuster to the House, and the election of Maggie Hassan as governor, New Hampshire now becomes the first state in U.S. history to have the governership and every single Congressional seat in both houses held by women. Those women join Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte. Obviously this is easier to do in a state with fewer House districts, but it’s a great thing nonetheless and worthy of celebrating as progress, particularly on the day we wake up to Massachusetts’ first female Senator-elect. Even better is that four of those five officeholders in New Hampshire are Democrats. We’re going to have to start calling it Blue Hampshire.
If there was any real disappointment to the Democrats last night, it was the U.S. House elections. Gains appear to be minimal, despite knocking off symbols of Tea Party insanity like Allen West and Joe Walsh, and nearly toppling Michele Bachmann. But, with John Tierney’s close win, we once again have every single U.S. House seat in the six New England states held by Democrats.
Last night we replaced Scott Brown with Elizabeth Warren, Joe Lieberman with Chris Murphy, Olympia Snowe with Angus King, and resoundingly re-elected Bernie Sanders and Sheldon Whitehouse. It looks like Maine approved same-sex marriage and Massachusetts approved medical marijuana. Preliminary returns indicate that we held all the Democratic State Senate seats and flipped a couple of Republican Mass. House districts (Steven Levy and Middle Finger Ross appearing to lose), while losing only one (2d Essex, Leonard Mirra wins a close one over Barry Fogel in Rep. Harriet Stanley’s district). The Dems may have added slightly to a 127-33 majority on Beacon Hill.
There are 67 counties in the six New England states. As of this morning it seems President Obama carried all but five of them. Romney did not break 53% in any of them, which is remarkable considering he was a governor here and won the New Hampshire primary so handily. Romney appears to have carried Litchfield County, Ct. and Piscataquis County in the Maine north woods by about three points each, and three counties in New Hampshire (Belknap and Rockingham by 5-6 points each, and Hillsborough by a very thin margin with votes still not counted).
All in all, a significant repudiation of the GOP and its Presidential standard-bearer in Blue England.
Scott Brown’s election wasn’t a trend toward Massachusetts rejecting President Obama and moving Republican after all, eh? As too many pundits who didn’t know anything about what was going on here were pontificating? But perhaps it was more the confluence of a bad candidate running a horrible race in a special election where Tea Party attention and money had nowhere else to go that month? As many who are not in the national media said at the time?
In 2008, Barack Obama beat John McCain in Massachusetts 62% to 36%. With 95% reporting, Obama’s win over Romney is at 61% to 37%. Despite all the mudslinging and obstruction he lost a point or so here at most, even though the opponent this time was, not too long ago, THE GOVERNOR OF THIS STATE and spent over thirty years here building networks.
That should lay to rest the idea that Massachusetts, and by obvious extension the whole nation, is moving sharply back to the right!
Has there ever been an election where the presidential candidate and the vice-presidential candidate lost both their ‘home’ states?
Scott Brown won in 2010 and lost in 2012 without ever once saying the word “Republican” and by constructing his sentences as ‘noun’ ‘verb’ and ‘independent’. I find it hard to countenance the idea that Scott Brown was a swift hard veer to the right… more like a circling meander into the
gutter.
Never a “swift hard veer to the right.” It really was something of a fluke. Again this year Brown went out of his way to say “vote the person, not the party.” But in 2010 the conservative media didn’t play it that way. To them his win was a sure sign Obama had overreached in his socialist takeover of America. Since, you know, even MASSACHUSETTS was turning to Republicans.
Lots of times:
2012
R- Romney (Massachusetts)
Ryan (Wisconsin)
1972
D- McGovern (South Dakota)
Shriver (Maryland)
1956
D-Stevenson (Illinois)
Kefauver (Tennessee)
1936
R-Landon (Kansas)
Knox (Michigan)
1932
R-Hoover (Iowa)
Curtis (Kansas)
1924
D-Smith (New York)
Bryan (Nebraska)
1920
D-Cox (Ohio)
FDR (New York)
1912*
R-Taft (Ohio)
Butler (NY)
1904
D-Parker (New York) but TR was also from NY
Davis (West Virginia)
1900
D-Bryan (Nebraska)
Stevenson (Illinois)
1888
D-Cleveland (New York)
Thurman (Ohio)
1880
D-Hancock (Pennsylvania)
English (Indiana)
1872
D&LR- Greeley (New York)
1864*
D-McLellan (New Jersey)
Pendleton (Ohio)
1860
ND-Douglas (Illinois)
Johnson (Georgia–lost to other Democratic ticket)
SD-Breckenridge (Kentucky– lost to Constitutional Union Party)
Lane (Oregon)
1856
R-Fremont (California)
Dayton (New Jersey)
1852
W-Scott (New Jersey)
Graham (North Carolina)
1840
D- Van Buren (New York)
no running mate
1836
W-Magnum (North Carolina)
Tyler (Virginia)
1816
F-King (New York)
Howard (Maryland)
1804
F-Pinckney (South Carolina)
King-NY
Magnum, Whig of North Carolina, lost to Van Buren 1836. That’s a great trivia question.
Both candidates from the same state: NY
Yes, a number of times.
1956: Adlai Stevenson (Illinois) and Estes Kefauver (Tenn.). Ike wins whole nation except 7 southern states.
1936: Alf Landon (Kansas) and Frank Knox (Illinois). FDR took all but Vt. and Maine.
1932: Herbert Hoover (Iowa) and Charles Curtis (Kansas). FDR took 42 of 48 states, but only 2 (Mass. and R.I.) of 6 in New England.
1924: John Davis (W. Va.) and Charles Bryan, son of William Jennings Bryan (Nebr.). GOP landslide. Unusual then for Dems to lose West Virginia.
1920: James Cox (Ohio) and FDR (NY). Huge GOP landslide. Harding, the winner, also was from Ohio so advantage negated.
Might be more.
…1972 in which the Dem ticket lost McGovern’s South Dakota and Shriver’s Maryland, though as a Kennedy by marriage Shriver certainly had MA connections.